


Coffee, Black, Beca

by aliciameade



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F, Merry Pitchmas Gift Exchange 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 03:36:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9053590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliciameade/pseuds/aliciameade
Summary: That fun little coffee shop/diner AU!





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lespetitesmorts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lespetitesmorts/gifts).



> Written for the Merry Pitchmas Gift Exchange 2016!

* * *

 

“Bree, trade me, my Table 9 for your 14.”

 

“What? Why? Chloe, 9 is completely out of the path of my other tables.”

 

Chloe glanced over Aubrey’s shoulder as they stood side by side at the beverage station, refilling sodas and water pitchers. There was a girl at Table 14, a square two-top in the corner. Chloe’s noticed her in the diner a few times recently, always at the same table, always with a laptop, always wearing headphones, sometimes one pushed back off her left ear, sometimes with a plate of french fries, always with a cup of coffee - the makings of a regular.

 

And she was super cute.

 

“Because, I want Table 14. Please? I’ll take 13, too.”

 

“Why do you want - “ Aubrey turned to look. “Ah. Okay, but Chloe, remember what I said -”

 

“I know, I know!” Chloe didn’t remember what Aubrey had said, and she hoped she wouldn’t be asked to prove she did. She wasn’t.

 

“She’s drinking coffee, black. And she’ll want to keep it coming. I don’t know how she sleeps, as much coffee she drinks this late in the day.”

 

“Got it!” Chloe said quickly, not needing a diatribe from Aubrey on the effects of caffeine on the sleep cycle. She balanced the two soda refills for Table 7 in one hand and grabbed the pot of coffee with the other and breezed by to drop off the glasses before sidling up to Table 14.

 

“Warm that up for ya?” Chloe cocked her hip and tossed her hair, making sure to be ready to wet her lips the moment the girl looked up to answer her.

 

“Yeah, thanks.”

 

Except the girl didn't look up.

 

Chloe shifted, her plan of attack, er, action, already thrown off course. She poured to buy herself a few seconds to think, and maybe catch the girl’s eye. But she was engrossed in whatever she was typing and clicking away at on her computer.

 

“I’m Chloe,” she tried.

 

The girl’s lips pressed into a thin line, little more than an acknowledgment.

 

“So just give a holler if you need anything at all!” she added, voice high and chipper.

 

No response.

 

She turned to return to the counter, where her best friend had apparently been observing the encounter - Aubrey was smirking.

 

“That went well.”

 

“You hush,” Chloe said, breezing past the blonde to busy herself checking on the status of another table’s order.

 

“I’ve been waiting on that mousy alt-girl for weeks; I’ve never seen her smile a single time. Don’t get your hopes up, is what I’m saying.”

 

Chloe pulled a plate stacked with meatloaf and mashed potatoes from the service window and turned to smile at Aubrey. “That sounds like a challenge.”

 

“Chloe, no, that’s not what -”

 

“Hey Jesse, gimme a side of fries, extra crispy!” she shouted to the cook in the back.

 

Aubrey just shook her head and walked away to make her rounds.

 

* * *

 

“Side of fries, extra crispy?” Chloe would have deposited the basket in front of the girl with a bit of fanfare if not for the laptop taking up most of the small table.

 

“I didn’t order -” Her customer finally lifted her head to reject them and stopped mid-sentence, staring.

 

Chloe’s bruised pride healed and soared and she smiled, forcing herself to rein in the all-out flirting blitz she was used to unleashing. She’d never stopped someone in their tracks before.

 

“- fries,” the girl finally finished after blushing, blinking, and looking at the ceiling, the floor, the fries, and her computer.

 

“Oh, they’re on me,” she said with a wink and moved to set down the basket, giggling as the girl hurriedly pushed her computer out of the way to make space.

 

“Thanks? Um, why?”

 

Chloe watched the girl try to fuss with her hair, only for her fingers to knock into her half-on headphones and blush harder as she pushed them back to hang around her neck and try to fix her hair again. “Because you looked like you could use some fries. Whatcha working on?”

 

“What? Oh. Um. Music.”

 

“Music?” Chloe asked excitedly. She made a move to look at the screen but the girl protectively snapped the lid closed. “Oh. Well, I love music! I’m in an _a cappella_ group at Barden. Do you go there, too?”

 

“Um, yeah?”

 

“Ooh! I’ve never seen you around campus - I’m pretty sure I’d remember you.”

 

“I’m uh...I’m a freshman? I don’t really...I don’t really go anywhere.”

 

“Well, we will have to change that,” Chloe said breezily, deciding to toss in a quick wink before spinning to leave before the poor girl overheated.

 

* * *

 

“She spoke to you. She actually conversed with you. An exchange of words.”

 

“You underestimate me, Bree.”

 

“I don’t underestimate your ability to seduce anyone, but apparently I overestimated the alt-girl’s bad attitude.”

 

“She’s a softie.” Chloe looked across the diner as she and Aubrey rolled forks inside napkins, just in time for the girl to look up from her reopened computer and basket of free fries and glance at Chloe. “And a cutie,” Chloe said with a smile as they made eye contact. The girl blushed and shoved a handful of fries in her mouth and went back to her music.

 

Chloe saw Aubrey shake her head in her periphery and mumble something about wearing her heart on her sleeve.

 

* * *

 

“Your girl’s back,” Aubrey said two days later. “Stacie just put her at 14.”

 

Chloe was busy marrying ketchups and looked up excitedly; there she was, settling in at Table 14 as she unpacked her computer and headphones. “On it. Jesse, fries, extra crispy!” She grabbed a clean coffee cup and saucer and the pot of coffee and hurried to 14.

 

“Hi,” Chloe said as she set down the cup and poured.

 

“Hey,” the girl responded, looking up but not really holding eye contact for more than half a second at a time.

 

“So what kind of music are you working on?” She opted to skip small talk and pleasantries with the hope that the girl would be more comfortable talking about that.

 

“Oh. Um...I do like...mash-ups, I guess?”

 

“Ooh, that sounds fun! Can I hear one?” Chloe set the coffee pot on the table, a motion she watched the girl track every second of.

 

“Uh...no? I mean, I’m sorry. I just...I don’t...I don’t really let people hear them?”

 

“That’s okay,” Chloe said with a smile. “I’m Chloe, by the way.”

 

“I know.” The response was fast.

 

Chloe’s smile widened. “Oh, you know?”

 

“You um, you told me. The other day.”

 

“Ahh, I didn’t realize you’d heard me. You pretty much ignored me.”

 

“Oh God, I’m really sorry, I was just into my -”

 

“Until you looked at me, anyway.”

 

“- music.” There was a beat. “What?”

 

Chloe gave an airy exhale and snapped another smile, enjoying teasing the girl. “I’m Chloe. And you are…?”

 

“Beca,” the girl sputtered. “Sorry. I’m Beca.”

 

“Beca? That’s cute.” She watched Beca blush. “And so are you.” She watched Beca blush harder, to the point she was sure Beca was going to crawl and hide under the table. She decided to give the girl a reprieve. “I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

 

* * *

 

“What in the world did you say to her?”

 

“Her name’s Beca,” Chloe said proudly. “And I told her she’s cute.”

 

“Chloe!”

 

“What? She is!”

 

“You can’t just tell someone they’re cute.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“Look at her,” Aubrey said, pointing with the knife she was using to cut a slice of apple pie. “She looks like she’s going to die.”

 

Chloe looked up from the coffee stains she was wiping off the counter. Beca hadn’t really moved from when Chloe had departed, other than the fact that she was slumped forward, hands over her face, ears still bright red. “She’s adorable.”

 

“You broke her.”

 

“She’ll be fine.” She saw Beca finally sit back, face now a more normal shade, and pushed her fingers through that silky looking chestnut hair. It instantly made Chloe itch to touch it.

 

“Fries up!”

 

“Ooh, thanks, honey,” Chloe cooed to the cook; Jesse was a nice boy, and they had fun flirting, but it was pretty clear he only had eyes for Aubrey. “Round 2,” Chloe said with a grin before snagging the basket of fries and two other plates for other customers to drop off on her way back to 14.

 

“I still didn’t order fries.”

 

“Still on me.” Chloe pulled out the chair opposite Beca and sat down.

 

Beca looked at her warily. “What’s happening?”

 

“I’m sitting.”

 

“Won’t you get in trouble?”

 

“I’m on a break.”

 

“You are?”

 

“No,” Chloe said with a giggle. “But I’m not going to get in trouble. Though I wouldn’t mind getting into a little trouble with you.”

 

Beca choked on a french fry and coughed, instantly blushing. “What?”

 

“You’re a freshman? I’m a senior, I know all the best places to go find trouble.”

 

“What is it with you and trouble?” For fifteen seconds, Beca seemed to forget her embarrassment. “You don’t seem like much of a troublemaker.”

 

“You think I’m a good girl?”

 

Beca pointed at her with a fry. “With that face? Yep.”

 

That caught Chloe off-guard, and _she_ nearly blushed. Instead, she let a smile slide into place, nice and slowly as she dropped her voice to a whisper. “I can be a little naughty.”

 

It worked, and Beca remembered to be shy and blushed hard, dropping her eyes to her fries.

 

“Well?” Chloe nudged when Beca didn’t respond.

 

“Huh?”

 

“Let me take you out.”

 

“What?”

 

“On a date.”

 

Beca was quiet for a second, staring at her fries until she finally looked up. “You’re asking _me_ on a date?”

 

Chloe grinned and nodded. “Tonight?”

 

“No. Sorry. I can’t. I mean, wow, I’d...I’d love to. But I have a thing.”

 

“A thing?”

 

“Work. I work tonight.”

 

“Oh! What do you do?”

 

“Uh, I’m an intern at the campus radio station.”

 

“85.7?”

 

Beca nodded.

 

“Oh my gosh, I listen to that station all the time! Are you a DJ?”

 

“No. I mean, that’d be cool. But freshmen aren’t allowed in the sound booth. Mostly I just stack and pull the CDs that the DJs play.”

 

“And here I thought I’d been listening to you this whole semester, like fate.”

 

Beca shook her head. “Not fate.”

  
“Well, it’s pretty fateful that you’re in my diner like, every day.”

  
“What? Why?”

 

“Because if you weren’t, we wouldn’t be going on a date. Tomorrow?”

 

* * *

 

She glided back to the counter, leaning against it and twisting playfully. “IIIIII have a date,” she sang at Aubrey.

 

“She actually said yes?”

 

“I can’t believe you doubted me, Bree,” Chloe pouted. “I’m hurt.”

 

“I didn’t doubt _you,_ I doubted that one’s ability to have human-like emotion.”

 

“Don’t be mean,” Chloe hissed. “I like her, and if it goes well and she turns into my girlfriend, you’re going to have to be nice.”

 

“Fine, I won’t be mean. But I reserve ‘nice’ for girlfriends.”

 

* * *

 

“So, what’s your major?” Chloe teased over her glass of Diet Coke. She’d tried to order a bottle of wine, but the waitress took one look at Beca and promptly carded both of them and ruined that plan.

 

“Seriously?” Beca said with a crooked smile that made butterflies stir up in Chloe’s stomach. “That’s your opening line?”

 

“It’s not my opening line! ‘Warm that up for ya?’ was my opening line.”

 

Beca rolled her eyes, and there were more butterflies. “Fine. I’m officially undeclared because I don’t want to be here. What’s yours?”

 

Chloe was taken aback. “Elementary Ed. What do you mean, you don’t want to be here?” Beca stared at her for a second and then her eyes went wide, ready for a profuse apology before Chloe held up her hand, promptly stopping it. “I know you don’t mean right here, right this second.”

 

“Yeah. I meant here, like at Barden. I’m only here because I made a deal with my dad.”

 

“What kind of deal?” Chloe twirled spaghetti around her fork, eyeing Beca carefully. It seemed like it could be a touchy subject.

 

“I want to move to LA, be a music producer. And -”

 

Chloe interrupted her. “A producer??”

 

“Uh, yeah.”

 

“I thought you wanted to be a DJ!”

 

“Oh, gross, no. I mean, that’s fine, but I want to produce music.”

 

Beca’s eyes started to light up, and Chloe could already tell music was the way to get the girl talking.

 

“Like David Guetta?”

 

Beca’s eyes went wide. “You know David Guetta?”

 

“Have I been living under a rock? Yeah! That song is my jam.” She hesitated, and then decided to go for it with a wink. “My _lady_ jam.”

 

Beca tilted her head, confused and squinting, and then she gasped and blushed. “Oh my God.”

 

Chloe giggled and had to stop herself from reaching across the table to touch Beca’s flushed cheek. “You're cute when you blush, you know.” It succeeded in making her blush harder, and it was all Chloe could do to not just climb over the plates of spaghetti and salad and kiss the girl.

 

She hoped if the night continued as well as it’s been going, she’d have the chance anyway.

 

“Tell me about your music,” she prompted to distract Beca. “What genre do you want to do? Who else do you like?” She wanted to know about the deal with Beca’s father, but that could wait.

 

It worked; Beca relaxed and launched into a tirade about genre cross-pollination and the pros and cons of live instrumentation versus electronic simulation.

 

* * *

 

“I had a really nice time tonight, Beca,” Chloe said from the front step of the Bellas’ house where Beca had walked her to. She turned to face the girl and noticed that adorable - and irresistible - blush returning.

 

“Good. I mean, uh, me, too,” Beca replied, scratching at her nose and then the back of her neck. She rocked back on the heels of her boots for a second and then forward again, the motion making Chloe’s pulse skip, but she stopped exactly where she had started.

 

Chloe decided to take a chance. “Would it be okay if I kissed you?” She bit her lip and twirled a lock of her fiery red hair around her finger. Beca lit up like a Christmas tree, and even if the answer was going to be to the negative, she really had had a wonderful time with Beca, and she felt certain that kiss or not, they were going to be good friends for a really long time.

 

“Okay.” Beca's answer was immediate, and she seemed surprised by it, as though it had been involuntary.

 

It surprised Chloe, too. “Really?” And she wanted to make sure Beca knew what she was agreeing to.

 

Beca nodded, and if the porch of the house was lit by anything more than a single light bulb, she was sure the girl would be the color of a tomato. A cute, adorable, and stunningly beautiful tomato - who took a step closer and even started to lift her hand as though to rest it on Chloe’s shoulder, and then changed her mind and crossed it around her own waist.

 

Chloe giggled and shook her head and reached for Beca’s wrist and pulled it up to deposit her hand on her shoulder as she leaned in and paused, giving Beca one last moment to be sure, and then Beca’s lips were on hers, warm and soft and tentative, the hand at her shoulder squeezing a little.

 

It was brief, lasting maybe four or five seconds, but it still made Chloe whimper a little when they parted. She opened her eyes first, and Beca seemed frozen in time, eyes closed, lips parted just a touch. She seemed to be waiting for something, and since every chance she’d taken with Beca thus far had worked out in her favor, she decided to take one more and lean in again.

 

It was Beca who whimpered the second time, and Chloe let her hands rest on Beca’s hips to urge her body closer as the kiss grew a little more confident. It made Chloe’s toes tingle and stomach flip in the good way. She pulled back before the desire to take one too many chances became too much to resist.

 

Chloe watched Beca open her eyes, a slow, disoriented fluttering of eyelashes. “Oh.”

 

“Oh?” Chloe started smiling; that ‘oh’ sounded like a good ‘oh.’

 

“Yeah,” Beca exhaled, a smile of her own appearing. “Oh. Um. Thanks. For tonight.”

 

“You’re welcome,” Chloe said with a gleeful twisting of her hips. “Maybe we can do it again sometime?”

 

Shy Beca was back, and she dropped her eyes and tucked her hair behind her ear, but she was still smiling. And she nodded. “I’d like that.”

 

“Awes.”

 

Beca smirked a little, but nodded, jerking her thumb over her shoulder. “I uh...should probably get back to my dorm.”

 

“Okay. See you at the diner tomorrow maybe?”

 

“Probably, yeah.”

 

“Coffee, black?”

 

“Definitely.”


End file.
